Investigation sexual incompatibility cases in some apricot genotypes under field conditions and using molecular techniques

The objective of this study was to determine the sexual incompatibility cases in 89 F1 genotype obtained in 2003 and 2004 as a result of cross-breeding procedures conducted on Paviot and Levent parents. For this purpose, open pollination, isolation, and self-pollination works were performed under land conditions, and S allele specific PCR applications and DNA sequencing analyses were conducted in laboratory. Levels of pollen viability and pollen germination and pollen tube lengths of the genotypes and their pomological, phenological and morphological properties were also determined in 2007, 2008 and 2009.It was determined that while the rate of viable pollen in Paviot cultivar was higher than in Levent genotype, the rates of pollen viability in hybrid genotypes were between 21.8-81.3%. Similarly, the rates of pollen germination were 84.8% in Paviot cultivar and 54.7% in Levent genotype. The rates of pollen germination in F1 genotypes ranged between 11.4-96.3%.The isolation works conducted in 2008 and 2009, resulted a 40-70% fruit set was Paviot cultivar. This figure was 0 % for Levent genotype. On the other hand, in self-pollination studies, the fruit set was 36-52% in Paviot cultivar, whereas it was 0% in Levent genotype. Pollination works conducted in the land revealed that Paviot cultivar was self-compatible, whereas Levent genotype was self-incompatible. It was also determined that 56 of the hybrid plants had fruit set of less than 5% and were self-incompatible, whereas 33 of them were self-compatible.The results showed that ScS2 alleles were in Paviot cultivar, a self-compatible cultivar, whereas S52Sx alleles were in Levent genotype, a self-incompatible cultivars. Since the second allele of Levent genotype had not been detected in previous studies and this is a new allele. Another finding was that ScS52, ScSx, S2S52, and S2Sx alleles were present in 89 F1 genotype used in the study and 56 F1 genotype carried no Sc allele and was self-incompatible.